As has been announced, come July 1, 2024, my title will officially change from “dean” to “president.” I do not believe that I have fully internalized the gravity of this transition, but I suspect that that will change, gradually and then all of a sudden, over the next several months as I go through the ..read more

Over the last six months or so, I’ve given several public talks and lectures and whatnot about The Book. The most recent of which was at the Dharma Bum Temple in San Diego. That event was live-streamed on YouTube and video can be found on their channel here. Back in November, there was a panel ..read more

A couple of book-related event updates. First, for those in San Diego or thereabouts, this Saturday, January 13, I’ll be speaking at the Dharma Bum Temple at 11:00 a.m. Here’s an event page with all the details. Unfortunately, I won’t have any copies of the book, but you can still get it for a decent ..read more

Rev. Dr. Seigen Yamaoka passed away last month. And to be perfectly frank, I am not sure that I have fully processed this loss. In the coming weeks, I am sure there will be more “official” obituaries, memorials, biographies, and so on, about Yamaoka-sensei from both the Institute of Buddhist Studies and the Buddhist Churches ..read more

View this post on Instagram A post shared by scott mitchell (@djbuddha2011) The last time I was in San Antonio was 2016, for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. In some ways, it feels like a lifetime ago. In others, the more things change, yada yada yada. If AAR is your thing ..read more

It’s been a minute, as the kids say [citation needed], since I posted an update. And I have a few updates. First up: the book Random people who stop by my office have told me that they’ve enjoyed the book. And there’s this exceedingly kind review on Buddhistdoor. And since the last time I updated ..read more

Less than forty-eight hours before I left home to ride my bike across California, I discovered that this site had been hacked. It’s not the first time I’ve encountered this problem — though it’s been a long, long time. Long enough that I didn’t really feel like dealing with the laborious task of reviewing all ..read more

The Making of American Buddhism ships today! It is a thing that exists in the real world (whatever the “real” world may be). If you pre-ordered a copy, it might very well be on a truck heading to your home right now! The book is expensive — relatively speaking. Honestly, I’m rather surprised/happy that OUP priced the book at just under $30 which is not particularly more expensive that a lot of mass market books out there. But I know a couple of things are true: (1) no one will read this book unless we collectively do our part to let the world know it exists because most of OUP’s marketing plan ..read more

We are now solidly into May, and according to the OUP website, The Making of American Buddhism is going to start shipping any moment now! So I wanted to send out a quick update about some upcoming book-related events. First and foremost, be sure to bookmark the book’s page on my website where I’ll be updating a list of events and, as available, video or audio or other book-related things. The “official” book launch will be a week and a half from now on Wednesday May 24 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time. This virtual event is being hosted by my employers at the Institute of Buddhist Studies, and I’ll b ..read more

As y’all know, I’m participating in this year’s AIDS/LifeCycle event, raising money to end AIDS, and riding my bike from here to Los Angeles. The ride’s taking place the first week of June. I was required to raise $3500 (did that several months ago); but I set a personal goal of raising $5000 (passed that one, too, a couple months ago). Since I met my goals, I haven’t been focusing too much on raising more money and instead on trying not to freak out about riding my bike for 545 miles over the course of a week! I had a taste of what that might be like last weekend on the official NorCal Day of ..read more